Reflection

A few minutes of walking eventually led the two alicorns to their intended destination, dorm room A09. Surprisingly, the room doesn’t have anyone living inside yet. The information somewhat baffles Mirror, after all It’s only two days left until the classes start and they’re still haven’t arrived.

Regardless on that matter, the dorm was simple as can be. Behind the door was a small hallway with a door on the left for the bath room. Further inside was the main room where resides a bunk bed, two dressers and a door which Mirror guessed was the closet.

Walking inside, he immediately unpacked his bags on the bottom bunk, leaving whoever his roommate will be to pick the top bunk.

After that, he got out and meets Twilight outside, who was tapping her foot in mild irritation, “What took you so long? You know we have a schedule to keep if we want to meet the others later.” She chided

“Sorry.”

Twilight let out a breath, “It’s okay, now let’s get on with the tour.”

The tour lasted quite long as they journeyed along an obviously readied path around the campus all the while having a light conversation about the element’s adventures and Mirror’s own time at the castle.

What really piqued Mirror’s interest was Twilight’s not-so-recent encounter with Starswirl’s spell journal, thanks to the princess of the sun. A supposed unfinished spell was completed after a few problems eventually leading to her ascension to an alicorn. Having never done anything amazing in his life, Mirror thinks that his ascension was not just.

The tour ended at the library, which surprised Mirror that it was near his dorm.

The sun was almost at its peak as they entered the library. With nothing else to pass the time, Twilight picked out a book with her magic from one of the shelves, “The girls will be here soon Mirror, why don’t you help yourself on some books.” She then took a seat next to one of the tables scattered around the library.

With an acknowledging nod, Mirror set out to the spell tomes section, getting lost in his own little world.

~†~

With sun high in the sky, a rainbow blur landed with a thud forcing a cloud of dust to form a few steps in front of the library. After a few flaps of her wings, the pegasus revealed herself, Rainbow Dash.

The short athletic mare was wearing a pair of blue jeans with a white tank top under a blue vest which easily reveals her cutie mark on her shoulders, a tri-colored lightning bolt under a white cloud.

Upon entering the library, she immediately spotted her librarian friend sitting near a table, currently engrossed on a book. With light feet, she casually neared Twilight.

“Really Twilight, don’t you do anything else but read?”

“What’s wrong with reading?” Twilight said, eyes never leaving the book.

“It’s just boring, don’t you have anything more exiting to do?”

“You’re one to talk, miss ‘I love Daring Do’.”

A slight red tint found its way up to Rainbow’s face both in embarrassment and slight irritation, luckily for her no one appeared to be near for the moment, “Shut it Twilight, what if somebody heard you, I’ve got an image to maintain.” Rainbow whispered. The two mares continued to argue for sometime not noticing a stallion approaching.

Walking out of one of the hallways while keeping his eyes on the book he’s reading, Mirror didn’t really have anything to notice the new presence in the room, “Twilight, do you have any idea how to remove an alicorn’s powers? I don’t think I can hi-“

*CRASH*

With his gaze still in his book, Mirror didn’t have the chance to evade the rapid rainbow blur that tackled him to the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs.

“Who are you!?” dropping out of his current daze gave him the opportunity to recognize the small figure that pinned him down, her wings flared aggressively as she glared him down, “How much did you hear?!”

“W-what?” he managed to stutter out, still trying to piece what happened, “Hear about what?”

“Don’t you play dumb with me.”

“About what? I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Rainbow’s intense glare was almost enough to make anyone crumble down, but Mirror saw something else in that glare.

Fear…

Fear of getting ridiculed, laughed at, and not taken seriously because of… reading Daring Do? No, reading in general?

Mirror started laughing.

You see illusions are where Mirror’s talent resides. Creating masks to protect oneself from others, protecting using misdirection, and doing everything he can to keep secrets hidden. In fact, his deepest secrets can only be uncovered by the Element of Honesty herself and only when she’s concentrating.

And with his experience in secrets, he can easily find cracks in its foundation, slipping in its guard and into the protected piece of information itself, catching a small glimpse of what’s inside.

“Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?” Rainbow began shaking the still laughing stallion before being coated in a billowing purple aura and lifted off him. It took only a second for her to realize whose aura it was and glared at the caster. “Twilight, what are you doing?”

Rolling her eyes, Twilight raised Rainbow higher letting Mirror stand up. “Sorry about that Mirror, Dash here can be a bit irrational when it comes to her reputation.”

Mirror gave out a small smile, “No worries, and what’s that about hearing something?” of course he already knew the answer. Playing ignorant just helps in respecting someone’s privacy.

“Oh, it’s just-“

“NOTHING IMPORTANT!” Dash’s sudden exclamation brought a string of silence in the air, “I-I mean… Uhh… it’s none of your business!” she hovered in front of him, “And I still don’t trust you.” She added while poking him in the chest, hoping on changing the topic.

“Uhh, right… Twilight, do you have anything about alicorns and their magic?” Mirror asked with a certain uneasiness in his voice.

Twilight paused for a moment in deep thought, and then walked inside the library office seemingly looking for something.

The following silence was somewhat awkward for Rainbow, being left with someone she accused a moment ago.

Mirror on the other hand was getting nervous, the silence was getting to him, ‘Well, this is awkward…’ he thought, ‘Oh yeah, I haven’t introduced myself…’ thinking on how it might alleviate some of the awkwardness in the room.

Rainbow was getting anxious she was over-thinking about how rude she was to someone, someone who could tell others that she always jumps to conclusions that she’s a jerk who only cares for herself, and how it could really destroy her reputation. Luckily for her, it’s not the case.

“Mirror Image.” Mirror managed to say. He was stumped on how to properly introduce himself, so he picked the method that first popped into his head… Blurting out his name.

“What was that?”

“My name, it’s Mirror Image.” He repeated while facing away from her, while bringing his hand out for a handshake.

It took a while before Rainbow caught up and shook his hand, “Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, and the fastest flier of all Equestria.” She said with pride.

Once again the room was silent, only to be broken by the office door opening with Twilight coming out with a young boy about half Mirror’s height. He was wearing a purple long sleeved shirt and shorts with green highlights, his green hair styled into a mohawk and has purple scales on some parts of his body, mostly visible are on his hands which looks like armored claws.

Seeing the drake, Mirror’s eyes widened in shock, ‘My first ever encounter with a dragon kin… and it’s inside a library… in a school. Huh, can this day get any weirder?’ he thought to himself still staring at the young drake.

Twilight, noticing the stallion’s stare, quickly introduced them, “Mirror, this is Spike, my assistant.” Then moved to Spike, “Spike, this is the stallion the princess mentioned in the letter the other day.”

Spike gave a questioning look at his caretaker then back at Mirror and shrugged.

“Spike will take you to the Magical Anatomy section, maybe there’s an article about alicorn magic in one of them.” Twilight said while pointing at a corridor.

Spike continued followed by Mirror without question.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Rainbow staring at the very same corridor both colts went. “You okay there Rainbow? You’re kinda spacing out there.”

Hearing her friend’s voice made her snap out of her thoughts, “Uhh… Yeah” she replied. She turned in the air and hovered near Twilight, “Do you notice something off about Mirror?”

“Like what?”

Rainbow scrunched her face thinking of a way of describing Mirror, “Like when he’s near, I can’t think straight, I can’t decide if I want to punch him or just leave him alone… arrgghhh it’s so confusing!”

Twilight caught on, and remembered something the princess of the sun had written in one of her letters, “Princess Celestia did say Mirror’s presence is connected to confusion, indecisiveness, and gullibility.”

“Presence? What do you mean by presence?”

“The feeling an alicorn gives off or encourages, that is what we call presence; it’s most likely connected to his or her special talent. For example, Princess Celestia gives the presence of warmth, Princess Luna; peace, Princess Cadance; love, mine; friendship, and apparently Mirror’s presence is confusion…” — then it hit her— “Or illusion, the princess did say Mirror had an unusual knack for illusions.” Twilight nodded to herself then turned around, finding her athletic friend deep seemingly deep in thought, a sight she was not used to seeing.

“Wait! Let’s backtrack a bit here, you said only alicorns have these ‘presence’, how can Mirror have them? How could that even be possible?! He’s clearly a unicorn! Plus he’s also a morph for crying out loud, anyone could see that,” — Twilight let out a lame chuckle—“And if he is an alicorn, where are his wings?” having finished her barrage of questions, Rainbow settled down.

“First of all, yes, he is and in fact the first morph alicorn in existence, the reason for this is still unknown. And he was enrolled in this school so that Princess Luna can monitor him; we never know what would happen to a morph given alicorn powers. Secondly he kinda wants to avoid any unnecessary attention, and can you imagine how he’ll be hounded just for being an alicorn? So, he made a way to hide his wings.”

Having lost in Twilight’s explanation, the two mares didn’t notice the Mirror and spike return until the former spoke, “Right on the mark there Twilight.” surprising the two out of their conversation.

Rainbow leveled another glare at him.

‘There it is again, I just want to give him a beating right now…’ Rainbow thought while scrunching her brows.

Mirror cast a suspecting glance at Twilight, “By the way, you know an awfully lot about me, care to share how?” The question seemed to catch Twilight off guard, and made Rainbow a little bit curious.

Twilight let out a sheepish laugh, trying to make up an excuse to what may have been an embarrassing explanation… until Spike spoke up.

“She’s been asking Princess Celestia about you ever since you trained under her, your age, height, strength, magical power, magical skills, heck even your sleeping patterns, almost everything that can be converted into data to be studied, she already asked for.” Spike smirked at his caretaker’s beet red face, more on the fact that her magic didn’t affect him as she wanted evident on the pink aura on his throat.

Mirror was taken a bit surprised at the new revelation, “I thought the only thing you knew about me was that I was an alicorn?” he asked, slightly muffled by the hysterical laughter from the pegasus in the room.

The fact that he didn’t notice that lie the first place made him think, ‘hmm, maybe alicorns are harder to read than others… well, the more you know I guess.’

He let out a breath and put a hand on her shoulder, “It’s alright Twilight, I understand you have a fascination on the subject, the princesses already told me about your slightly obsessive studying habits…” he trailed off at the end after noticing Twilight’s red face going crimson, with Rainbow’s own intensifying laughter.

Rainbow settled down a bit, “You keep this up Mirror and maybe you’ll go into my ‘okay’ list very soon.”

Hoping to diffuse the situation, he steered their conversation elsewhere, “Ooookay, next topic, what were you doing to Spike?”

After managing to lower her own embarrassment she answered with a defeated sigh, “I was trying to prevent his larynx from vibrating, thus preventing him from speaking, which failed miserably…”

“And why is that?”

“He’s going to have a growth spurt sometime in the later months, his body is maturing and since he is an arcane drake, his body’s magic resistance will increase dramatically.”

“And I’ll be growing wings!” Spike added.

“Right, and that. Rainbow, do you know when the others will get here?”

“Applejack said that she and Big Mac just need to unpack and they’ll be here. Rarity and Fluttershy said they’ll come after they finish decorating their room. And Pinkie said she’ll be late, something about introducing us to someone and having a sudden urge to party.” Rainbow replied.

“While we wait, do you mind if you turn down your presence a bit Mirror? I’m getting really indecisive on what to do next around here.”

With a sheepish smile, Mirror complied, “Sorry about that,” he later received strong punch on his shoulder by the rainbow mare. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Nothing, with your presence out of the way I finally decided to punch you… hard”

“Satisfied?”

“Yes… at least for now.”

A moment later, the apple siblings made their entry, one Earth mare with blonde hair and tail wearing a red plaid button up shirt a pair of blue jeans embroidered with three red apples, and boots. The other one, a massive stallion easily towering over Mirror about a head or so, he was wearing a red button up shirt embroidered with a halved green apple, blue jeans and a pair of boots matching his sister.

As always Applejack’s handshake almost threw Mirror through the roof, “Howdy there Mirror, name’s Applejack, It’s nice to meet ya.”

Big Mac’s Handshake on the other hand was firm… and silent.

“Big Mac?” Mirror Inquired

“Eeyup.”

“Not much of a talker?”

“Eeyup.”

Silence.

A few more minutes passed before the next pair entered. A tall unicorn dressed with a white blouse, black jeans, and a pair of high heels. Her purple hair curled with precision to prevent a baby blue gem on her forehead from being covered. Her face showing signs of frustration.

The second, a meek yellow winged pegasus wearing a yellow turtleneck sweater and white pants. She was trying to hide in her long pink locks as soon as she spotted Mirror.

Rarity and Fluttershy crossed the entryway, the latter gingerly made her way to the large farmer while the former, while frustrated, didn’t notice Mirror as she sat right across from him from the various benches and seats inside the library.

“Is she always like this?” Mirror whispered to the hovering athlete at his side, noticing Rarity’s conflicted demeanor.

“Nah.” Came the answer, “She only like this when she’s in a jam. Mainly involves fashion though.”

“I’ll take your word for it then, I don’t know anything about fashion, doubtful I could help her in that subject.”

Rarity raised her gaze for a moment, apparently the word ‘fashion’ broke her out of her internal debate, and grew wide eyed at what she was seeing: Black and White.

“Now, is that normal?” he asked again, now slightly uncomfortable at the fashionista’s stare.

“Happens every time she realizes a solution.”

Slowly, a smile crawls up the fashionista’s face, followed by her standing up and shaking Mirror’s hand with mirth, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you darling!”

“W-what did I do?” Mirror asked in confusion

“Why darling, you just broke through my little dilemma on my next line. I haven’t tested my fields in monochromatic styles, this is going to be an enjoyable experience.”

Mirror hadn’t the slightest clue on what he helped on her on, until the word monochromatic came to view, ‘Really,’ he thought ‘me wearing black was the only reason about this? It’s hardly a reason to thank me.’

“With all that black you’re wearing, aren’t you getting hot in there?”

The moment Rarity asked the question, Rainbow was already hovering by Mirror’s shoulder with a smirk, raising a brow, “Wow Rarity, you don’t even know the guy’s name yet and you’re flirting already.”

The statement alone made the fashionista stutter and paint a faint blush on her cheeks.

‘This mare really likes to mess with friends’ Mirror thought, ‘May as well play along.’ He mirrored Rainbow and raised his brow.

“Right, well my name is Rarity Belle, the sole proprietor of Carousel Boutique, and the element of generosity.” Rarity held out her hand, slightly faltering by the power of the brows.

Mirror stood up and removed his face with a raised brow, revealing a smiling face below it. The unusualness of the movement somewhat appalled Rarity and the farm-mare behind her but granted a little humor from both the pegasi in the room. “Mirror Image, the illusionist.” He said as he shook her hand.

Rarity stuttered, “I-illusions? For a moment there I thought it was the Discord fiasco all over again.”

*SLAM*

*GASP*

The group immediately looked upon entryway, there stood mouth agape a pink mare… a very pink mare, maybe it’s the hair.

She stands a bit taller that Rainbow, with a head full of bouncy pink hair and wearing a pink shirt embroidered with balloons, two blue and one yellow, baby blue shorts with suspenders, pink sneakers and white and pink striped knee-high socks.

Mirror was equally agape, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of pink.’ he thought

With a pink blur, Mirror’s hand was soon shaken with vigor, “Hi my name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everybody calls me Pinkie Pie, what’s your name? I like parties, do you like parties? ‘cause it’ll be really, really weird if you don’t like if I throwapartyandyouare’ntinvitedbecauseIknewyoudon’tlikepartiesandyou’llbelikesuperboredandallalonebecauseeverybodyisinvitedbutyou.

“Hi Pinkie, my name’s Mirror Image, and, uh occasionally?” he faced Rainbow, who was hovering a bit ways above him “Is this normal?” he asked quietly

“It is for Pinkie Pie.” She answered, she hovered closer to her pink friend, “So, Pinks, care to tell us who you brought with you?”

“Sure thing Dash,” Pinkie replied as she let go of Mirror’s hand that she was shaking vigorously and stepped back a bit, “He’s right here!” she yelled as she stepped aside, both arms gesturing where she were before with a huge smile on her face.

With all the other’s look of confusion, Pinkie looked where she was gesturing and frowned. She crouched down facing away from the others and started talking to her shadow. “Why didn’t you come out?… What? I’m sure they’ll at least let you talk first… Don’t be a meany pants, I’ll pull you out of there if I have to… you asked for it.” Reaching into her shadow, she pulled out a big chunk of dark mass which slowly formed into a distraught stallion.

A moment later Twilight easily recognized the form, “KING SOMBRA?! How are you even alive?” she asked all the while charging a spell into her hands, while the others, except Mirror and Big Mac who were getting confused, got ready for battle.

Sombra on the other hand was passive, “Sparkle.” He said nonchalantly

“Pinkie get away from him, he’s a villain, a tyrant, and most of all he’s—“

“Reformed.” Pinkie interrupted causing her friends to shout in unison,

“WHAT!?”

Twilight was the first one to break out of her stupor, “How and When?!”

“Remember the time when you all invited me to Canterlot because of your ascension and I stayed behind a bit?”

“THAT WAS TWO MONTHS AGO! Why did you keep this from us? You could have been killed!”

“No can do Twilight, Princesses orders.”

Twilight gave out a sigh and turned to Sombra, who was now more or less fully formed. He stands as tall as Rarity with somewhat flowing black hair, scarlet eyes and a faintly glowing crimson gem on his forehead. He was wearing a grey button up shirt and black dress pants.

Sombra turned to Twilight, “It seems that your friend Pinkamena can be a handful sometimes, but I still owe her for giving me my sanity back.” He said as he picked out a book out of the shelves.

Twilight gave out another sigh, “Pinkie—“

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you get that party Dash was talking about out of your system while I gather my thoughts.” Twilight slowly entered her office and closed the door… hard.

“Gladly!” Pinkie pulled out a blue cannon from out of nowhere as far as Mirror could notice, leaving him slack-jawed. “Let’s get this party started!” With a blast from her cannon, library was decorated almost in a blink of an eye, making Mirror question if logic really exist.

‘Okay this day just got a LOT weirder… But I’m not complaining.’ Mirror thought.